#EndIntersexSurgery

[teenvogue]

These Young Intersex People Want You to Know That They Exist

On Saturday, October 27, intersex people and their allies gathered outside New York-Presbyterian Hospital's Weill Cornell Medical College to call for an end to surgeries performed on intersex babies — also known as intersex genital mutilation.

Intersex people are those born with sex characteristics that fall outside the binary of what we traditionally understand as male or female. At birth, when doctors assess a baby's genitals to assign it a sex, intersex babies are often put through medically unnecessary surgeries to make their genitals conform to the binary. These surgeries can not only be traumatic but also perpetuate shame and stigma. So, on the day after Intersex Awareness Day, at least 100 intersex people and allies stood in the rain outside the New York hospital where some of these surgeries reportedly take place to demand they stop, as part of an action lead by activist group Voices4 and the Intersex Justice Project, the intersex people of color-led group behind the #EndIntersexSurgery campaign.

"Intersex surgeries are still happening all over the world," Hanne Gaby Odiele, a model and intersex advocate, told Teen Vogue. Hanne didn't find out she was intersex until she was 17. "We are targeting a hospital that is known for still doing non-consensual surgeries on children."

In addition to asking medical professionals to end these surgeries, intersex advocate Emily Quinn told Teen Vogue there needs to be a societal shift in how we think about bodies.

"Our bodies do not need to be fixed, there's not a problem that needs to be fixed," Emily said. "It's just that society needs to be enlightened and understand that biology isn't black and white, specifically sexual differentiation in humans isn't black and white."

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📸: Brittney McNamara

[realtransfacts]

“5 Ways You Can End Intersex Surgery” by Pidgeon #EndIntersexSurgery

[coke-spoon]

“Call me by your Hebrew name” —Adam Eli via Instagram

[officiallyobsessed]

This one's for you, @pidgeo_n. #endintersexsurgery #austin #beforeidiewall (at Before I Die Wall)

[pidgeonpagonis]

#LurieEndSurgery is a movement led by Intersex People of Color for Justice. Read our 2017 statement: http://bit.ly/2z8uCtn. Intersex People of Color for Bodily Autonomy & Justice seeks to uplift overlaps between state violence against black and brown folks & intersex people. Our 1st action as a collective, #LurieEndSurgery, is today 12 noon out front Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago on 225 E. Chicago Ave. All the help info is at endintersexsurgery.org and the fb event is: bit.ly/IADCHI2017. #LurieEndSurgery is the 1st, in many actions at hospitals nationally, under the umbrella hashtag #EndIntersexSurgery that we'll support. Lurie recently got wind of our protest and sent out this "high alert" message to staff (photo below). What's most telling is they never mention what our "extreme position" is, so I'll make it loud & clear for Lurie: Our extreme position is that Lurie ends medically unnecessary genital surgeries on intersex kids. We're demanding intersex children be protected under the Hypocratic Oath's tenent of First Do No Harm like other children. The point being, Lurie's Sex Development Program, is still performing MEDICALLY UNNECESSARY genital and gonadal surgeries on intersex kids. Lurie's Sex Development Program is continuing a practice that's in direct conflict w today's U.S. Department of State's statement (photo of statement below) which condemns these unnecessary surgeries! So if u believe in our "extreme position" (bodily autonomy for all!) please join us at noon out front of Lurie to demand #LurieEndSurgery (at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago)

[mxanunnakiraymarquez]

It is simple, the rights of the child have to come first with medically unnecessary genital surgeries.